In the latter time, &c.— The Romans might be said to stand up in the latter time, &c. who saw the end not only of one kingdom, but of all four; who first subdued the kingdom of Macedon and Greece; then inherited, by the will of Attalus, the kingdom of Lysimachus; and afterwards made a province of the kingdom of Syria; and lastly, of the kingdom of Egypt. When the Romans stood up too, the transgressions were come to the full; for the high-priesthood was exposed to sale: good Onias was ejected for a sum of money, to make room for wicked Jason, and Jason again was supplanted for a greater sum of money by a worse man, if possible, than himself,—his brother Menelaus; and the golden vessels of the temple were sold to pay for the sacrilegious purchase. At the same time the customs of the heathens were introduced, the youth were trained up and exercised after the manner of the Greeks; and the people, and even the priests, apostatized from the true religion. See Exodus 4:14. Nay, Jerusalem was taken by Antiochus, 40,000 Jews were slain, and as many were sold into slavery; the temple was profaned, even under the conduct of the high-priest Menelaus, was defiled with swine's blood, and plundered of every thing valuable: and in the same year that Paulus AEmilius, the Roman consul, vanquished Perseus, the last king of the Macedonians, and thereby put an end to that kingdom, the Jewish religion was put down, and the heathen worship set up in the cities of Judaea and Jerusalem; the temple itself was consecrated to Jupiter Olympius, and his image was erected upon the very altar. Then indeed the transgressions were come to the full. See Bishop Newton.
A king of fierce countenance— A king, in the prophetic style, is the same as kingdom. Instead of understanding dark sentences, the Syriac translates skilful of ruling, and the Arabic, skilful of disputations. We may suppose the meaning to be, that this should be a politic and artful, as well as a formidable power; which properly characterizes the Romans. They were represented in the former vision by a beast dreadful and terrible; and for the same reason they are here signified by a king of fierce countenance. Whether this character belongs to the Romans, or to Antiochus Epiphanes, may be collected from the following narrative. Antiochus was engaged in a war with Egypt, and in a fair way of making himself master of it. The Romans, therefore, looking upon his increasing power with a jealous eye, sent an embassy to him, to require him to desist from his enterprize, or else to declare against him. Popilius, the chief of the ambassadors, had formerly been his friend; and the king, at their first meeting near Alexandria, offered him his hand, in remembrance of their former friendship. This Popilius declined, saying, that private friendship must give place to the public welfare, and he must first know whether the king was a friend to the Roman state, before he could acknowledge him as a friend to himself: he then presented to him the tables, which contained the decree of the senate, and desired an immediate answer. Antiochus, after reading them, replied, that he would communicate them to his friends, and return him an answer very speedily; but Popilius, with a wand which he carried in his hand, drew a circle round the king, and insisted upon his answer before he stirred out of that circle. The king, astonished at this peremptory manner of proceeding, after some hesitation, said he would obey the commands of the senate; and then at length Popilius reached forth his hand to him. This incident happened soon after the conquest of Macedonia; and being the first memorable action of the Romans immediately on their becoming a horn of the kingdom of the goat, it is very fitly said of them, and more fitly than of Antiochus, A king of fierce countenance shall stand up. See Bishop Newton.